Tomoe - Even Without You, Life Goes On, and the Earth Still Spins
by Erin90
Summary: A semi Self-insert, thrown into a world full of ninja. Born to a family of non-ninja survivorists...Life goes on and it seems almost like bliss. Even if you did have to gather and hunt for your food all the time, but you get used to it. The isolation. Your whole world is just you and your adoring parents. Until tragedy struck and you never see them again.
1. Chapter 1

Don't Sue me, I do not claim that I own Naruto

Please Don't hate me I know I'm bad at writing but I think it gets better next chapter

This is a semi self-insert. The mc's parents never married so you could say that she has her mother's name. But then again her parents didn't even register her birth so...Does she even exist?

Prologue

The only thing I did good in my life caused me to die. And some people would say it was stupid, since all I did was cause a death. Yes, I pushed a kid out of the way of a car. The only problem is that I accidentially fell into the path of another car, which hit me at just the right angle. I'm kind of glad that I died sort of. I just don't care anymore. Friends? They backstab you any chance they would get. Bonds are never the life-long friendships that I laugh at on my computer screen. Humans are after all self-centered, whimsical and illogical beings. Effort in life? I'm just too tired. I wish I could just sleep, and I would have gotten my wish too if I wasn't born a Nara although at the time I didn't know this. least I get to be lazy.

* * *

I was born to some shitty survivorlist parents that live alone in the woods. Fuck it. I'm not sure if the world readlly ended and my parents are the last people left in the world or if this is like the only forest in the world left that didn't have trash littering the ground. I'm not sure since I have neverseen anyone else.

Oh, and did I mention my name is now Tomoe? Dad said my name was something about the world going around even if people didn't existed or some shit like that. Sigh, at least I wasn't born; one child of many from one cult leader or something.

Dad was all gung ho on me elarning all the survivorlist skills early. Like real early, fuck he left me all alone in the forest at night when I was three. With a big ass pointy knife the size of my little arm. A humungous pack over shadowing me and a tin with flint. And told me to survive the night by myself, and I don't think he watched over me or anything either. Who does that? I bet that if I wasn't reincarnated, and three years I probably would have impaled myself or got eaten by some raccoon. The thing was that I never really went camping in my past life so I have no idea how to, well, survive in the wild. And anytime I did go camping it was practically a stones throw away from civiliazation. With a lighter. And disgusting marshmellows.

So I was thinking that I really needed to get off the forest floor since it was starting to get dark. I tried making sparks on chips of dry wood, and even dug a hole for it but no such luck. No fire to scare away the scary carnivores that are probably eyeing me right now. Before it got really dark, I gave up trying to make a fire and instead tried my hand at climbling a tree.

The trees in the forest that I lived in were real tall, like decades old. A gold mine really, but the way that we could live in a forest this isolated was if we were in a world with a small human population compared to landmass. I've been suspecting that for a while now. Dad did have purple eyes and I don't think he's wearing contacts. And I don't mean that bluish/indigo purple eyed people that are actually blue eyed that you rarely ever saw in my old life. I mean straight up purple. Thank god I had brown eyes like mom, but if you looked into them there were speckles of purple. As if they were the green in hazel eyes or something.

Back on topic though, that time when I was three, I slept in a tree and in the morning dad came to pick me up. Looking a little suprised as if he didn't expect me to still be alive.

* * *

At first I didn't think too much of my new parents at first. I got the inkling that civilization did exist here. Although there wasn't electricity or anything but dad would sometimes disappear somewhere and come back with clothes. They weren't modern or anything but thank goodness we didn't have to make clothes out of animal skins. And I get the feeling that when I get old enough, they wont let me go to school either. Now that I think about, did mom even go to a hospital to have me?

But over the years they sort of grew on me. Mom taught me how to skin and hide animals, and even make clothes if there was ever a need to. She taught me the herbs and plants of the forest, and how to cook with it. Dad taught me to fish, climb trees(like a monkey), track, hunt(with throwing knives), and set traps for animals. He even taught me to walk in the forest silently, it had to do with gowing with the flow of nature or something. Listen to the wind and pay attention to how you placed your feet. Straight out of a fantasy/survival I tell you. Taught me to cover my tracks, detect signs of human activity, make false trails, and even traps that were big enough to catch humans. What did he think? That an army would march in to take over our little cabin in the woods? Yeah right.

By the time I was five, I pretty much learned how to live in the woods self-sufficiently. I knew which ones were the edible plants and avoided the poisonous ones. I was practically fighting tooth and nail with the wild animals of the forest (that were my size). I never knew a five year old's skin could be so thick.

For the past year, dad has been setting me up into these illogical situations: hanging off a cliff with my twiggy arms, upside down caught in a human trap, thrown into a body of water without knowing how to swim... He pretty much wanted to see what I would do in unexpected situations. Which were: flip over the branch, cut the rope connected to my foot, and well... dad had to fish me out of that one. He thought I was lacking though so I had to practice for hours, just hanging onto something, first my left, then my right (I'm right handed). And know I know how to swim like a fish...int the middle of a rapid river. I would be happy to see that I had a faint outline of a six pack, if it didn't look so misplaced on my body.

* * *

I was coming back from my turn to hunt, and I noticed something off... It was a nice big boar, and of course I didn't directly hunt it. It sharp and dangerous tusks. So I dug a hole with spikes in it, covered it up, and set a trip wire. I waited in the trees until a boar wandered by and threw a rock to startle it. Boars are so easy, if they didn't know you were there(cuz they're smart little bastards).

Something was...off about the forest. Like there was something here... Or maybe someone?

I heard yelling and recognized it as dad. "Get out of my house you freak!" I heard mom's voice soft and indistinct trying to plactate her husband. Another voice said something but I couldn't hear it. I just stood there dumbfounded until the visitor walked out or should I say slouched out? He paused for a second when he saw me.

He had black, spikey hair tied up in a pony tail and two scars on the right side of his face. He had on a green vest but over it was some animal's skin, and there on his chin were the begginings of a gotee. Why does his appearance tickle the back of my mind? Familiar...

I'm pretty sure he was suprised in finding a kid out here, coming home late with a dead boar traing behind her, but I didn't see any of the sort on his face. I must have looked the very image of a wild child, unruly hair, no shoes, and most likely covered in dirt.

He approached me, "You're growling, kid," he patted the top of my tangled curls as he passed. That stoped me short, I hadn't noticed.

"Are you a ninja, Mr.?" He paused, not bothering to turn back to look at me. "What makes you say that, kid?"

"Because daddy only gets like that when he talks about ninjas."

He hmmed casually at me, "Who are you? I've never seen anyone else other than mommy and daddy."

"I'm your mother's brother."

"Uncle?" I questioned but he was already gone.

Yes, I thought, when dad had started ranting about ninjas he usually started yelling but I had paid him no mind. After all I thought he was just paranoid or talking about some conspiracy theory. But looking at this guy...a familiar feeling tickles the back of my head. I'm in a riduculus world. I sort of don't want to leave this uninhabitated part of the world. There are after all ninjas in it, maybe I could live my whole life here...

* * *

Time skip - 6 years old

Tomoe came home late one night only to meet her father at their door. His eyes were red like he had been crying. "Where have you been? Are you alright?" his voice concerned. But that wasn't right, something was wrong. It felt familar but what was it? It wasn't his normal ramblings. He seemed to look behind her, as if he expected to see someone there.

Tomoe answered, "Out hunting," holding up three rabits.

There was something wrong about this situation, why does he keep shifting his eyes around. It was familar, this feeling...that the person in front of you was _dangerous._ Unbalanced. That they might lash out at you or themselves and the only person to stop them was _you_.

"I'm so sorry Tomo," he used her pet name. "But I had to do it! She was threatening to leave us, No! Even worse she was planning on leaving and taking you with her! I can't let you go.." _What is he saying? Is he saying what I think he's saying?_

Tomoe ducked her eyes down, confused, but after a moment dragged them back up. She had seen what was inside, looking past him through his legs. She could have sworn she saw...What he said next snapped her away from her thoughts.

"I need to protect you, but your mom..." he stiffened and looked at the trees again, as if someone was there. But wasn't. "But maybe we can both meet her again, together..." His hand went down to the hunting knife at his right leg, slowly. Oh so slowly.

Tomoe froze at his last words, barely registering them. But she two was fingering the knife she had only just used to gut and skin the animals in her hands. They were left uncleaned of her last kill, she was young and still not in habit of cleaning her weapons like the rest of her family.

Suddenly the two clashed hunting knives. There were no sparks that flew between them; their weapons weren't meant for fighting. They dully clanked together. Tomoe was having a hard time keeping up, she wasn't used to having to hold her knife like this. Defensively. The only times she had used her knife like this was when she hunted. The only comparison she had was once when she had accidentially come across a young but injured wolf. She had to block the agitated wolf's claws with her blade and then hastily went in for a kill. That battle had given her two scars on one of her thighs.

Her father, of course had the advantage. He was a much taller adult male. It even seemed as if the longer the two drew it out the more, the more his stance relaxed into. As if it was a familar stance. Something he was comfortable with.

She needed to get away from here, out of danger. But it seemed that with every second the battle lasted he went through more and more of her carefully put up defences. _She wasn't going to win._

The two bent low, exchanging quick blows. Both of their skills the fruit of labor. Of living in the wilds, and battling dangerous animals for survival.

_She needed to get away. Their eyes met. It seemed to her that his eyes, his eyes were only asking for fogiveness...I need to..Why did he do it?_

Those were her last thoughts before her consciousness turned to black.

Author's note: Tomoe does not suspect that she's in Naruto-verse, her dad is teaching her normal survival skills. She's not even using chakra to hide her prescence. She's just that good and her dad was just that much of a survival nut. She's not even strengthening her body with chakra.

This is AU?: Shikaku has a cousin that he grew up with like a sister, she never became a ninja though and left after she with Tomoe's dad. Tomoe's dad had actually went to the Academy though, he failed. Also as you can see he is not from the Nara clan. He has dark red almost brown hair.


	2. Chapter 2 - 1

**Warning:** **Extreme case of Amnesia, Tomoe does not remember her life much. She remembers enough to know that she's mentally an adult but doesn't remember details. Like Naruto. Gone is her memories of who she is now and her parents. Maybe she'll recover or maybe she wont.**

Chapter 1

Tomoe wakes up with a headache, her tongue thick in her mouth. She checks herself over, noting the injuries on her arms, neck and legs. They would scar she thought but with the proper care they wouldn't cause her any problems. Absent mindly she started to clean her woulds, but stopped midway of wrapping her arms in bandages. When did she learned how to do that? She takes a moment to compose herself, but finds that she doesn't know where she is. Or who she was? Is? What's my name? Wasn't it ooooo? No, it was Tomoe. Tomoe Something...And for some strange reason she was knowledgable in the ingredients that her healing salve was made out of. Perhaps she had made these herself?

Tomoe then, went through her own belongings, cataloguing everything on her person. It was strange what she had with her. There was a rather large hunting knife, with a jagged back strapped to her thigh. In her many and deep pockets it semed that she also had supplies for... Trap making? And for hunting animals she remembered the use for her small throwing knives. The clothes weren't that strange in itself, although they seemed quite durable for only a child's shirt and shorts. She had no shoes. Tomoe mentally noted that the skin of her feet were tough, as they didn't hurt when she walked over ruff ground. _So my shoes aren't missing. I just didn't have any in the first place._

_Maybe I live in the woods?_ Tomoe briefly glanced to her right where an expansive wood spread out. But the more she looked at it the more she wanted to look away. She felt that deep in her bones that the forest was a place of _danger_ to her. But she was getting mixed messages from her mind, the forest was her home...A safe place. _I wonder if this is the wrong forest._

Tomoe looked down at herself again, she had the body of a child. But she lacked the awkwardness of a child's body. She seemed so in control of herself that many people do not have until _many years_ after puberty. She checked underneath her shirt, in the back of her mind she knew that she was definitely female. But the strangeness of her body made her doubt that maybe she was actually some person afflicted with stunted growth. No that was not it either she distinctly lacked the breast of a teenage or adult woman, and even stranger still. Tomoe had discovered that she had very advanced muscular structure for her age, strange was an understatement.

Tomoe was definitely a child of..five? No, 6, yes 6 seemed to be the correct number of years to Tomoe. But if she was a child of 6 then where were her parents? Why am I dressed so strangely? Why did her parents or guardians allow her to have this dangerous and possibly life endagering knife? Although when Tomoe pulled it out of its sheath on the side of her thigh, it seemed well-balanced in her hand.

Like she was very used to using it? Doing what though? But then she remembered the rabbit in her bag. That's right she must have been a hunter. Or maybe a ranger as she noted that she felt at home in the woods. But that seemed like a weird profession for a child to have. But maybe she lived in the woods because she was an orphan. She was also most likely homeless but probably taught herself how to hunt and skin animals. Which would have given me both a source of income and a way to eat. She also dimly noted that she was a very observant child which must have resulted from caring for herself at such a young age.

Tomoe must have saved up enough money to have bought the supplies she had to survive in the forest and the large knife she carried. So that explained it. It was the tools of her trade after all. Then came another thought, followed by a shiver. Hunting wasn't the only thing a knife could be used for. Self-protection, she remembered the word. She clenched her teeth.

How had she protect herself from other people before? She almost didn't want to think about it. She got the feeling that she didn't interact with many people in her life.

Still, how long have I been orphaned. My whole life? No that doesn't seem quite right.. She had parents once...Someone...Wasn't there also someone else? Didn't she also have some next of kin somewhere? An Uncle perhaps. But where did he live, it must have been far since she hadn't went to live with him before. He lived in...Konoha. Was that right? Tomoe was pretty sure that was where her uncle lived but where had she heard of that? It seemed like the information had just suddenly come to her but it felt different than from her earlier instances of rememberence.

_So should I head to Konoha?_ she thought. Tomoe although she felt that she would be at home in those woods, but she also felt apprension from its proximity. She wanted to be near civilization, so Konoha it was. Since she couldn't think of another place where she might have connections to. Had family in. She just hoped her parents had a good relationship with her uncle. Now that Tomoe thought about it, did she even know the names of other villages? She had started to walk one way down the road when her thoughts had decided on going to Konoha. But she stopped where she was and started a small fire to cook the rabbit she had.

* * *

It was getting dark, so Tomoe thought that the best course of actions for her would be to rest for the night. Tomoe made a fire and as she waited forShe ate half the rabbit and stored the rest back in her bag for the morning. She climbed up a tree that just hugged the road, quite deftly, and made herself a make shift shelter at its tops. Tomoe was hit with a wave of nostalgia, she understood that she had done this many times before. Probably more times than sleeping on the ground or a flat surface actually. Which she found strange. Why were there so many conflicting thoughts in her head?

The next morning she set off again, the same direction that she had picked last night. Althoughe she traveled a bit far, but it was at a steady pace. It felt like she usually travelled around much quicker, but she eventually found herself in a small village. She asked around and it seemed tha Konoha was indeed close. The only problem was that it was the other way around, back the way she came from. Tomoe sighed, the whole mornig had already been spent walking here. So without delay she thanked the person she had asked and went back the way she had come from.

By late afternoon Tomoe deduced that she was back to where she had started. There was the smudge on the ground that indicated her well hidden campfire, the tree she had slept in last night. Tomoe was about to march to her destination right away but thought against it. So she went to the periphery of the forest (since she still felt wary), and set up a bunch of traps for animals to fall prey to. At first she thought that she wouldn't be able to remember the skills she desperatedly needed to survive but it all came back naturely to her. Like a long forgotten dream. She set up trip wires that would, once activated would cause rabbits to trip over and entangle their own feet. Would catch small and unsupecting birds to be impaled as they searched for food. In a few hours she had a wild turkey, a pheasant, and two rabbits. She skinned and gutted them, and in the end a whole rabbit dissappeared, she was hungry.

There was a few hours left of the day and Tomoe quickened her pace, she wanted to be at least on her way before having to stop for the night. After all the ma that had given her the directions stated that it take two months to get there on foot, although he did stare at her when she had asked. A child traveling somewhere that was two months away all by theirself? Tomoe knew that was strange, but she was already getting used to the strangeness of her situation.

* * *

Five days later she came to an intersection, and vaguely remembered the directions she had recieved. On the new road before she noticed that there were some recently made tracks, they seemed to be close. Most likey visible just after the next bend in the road. A strange sense of dread washed over Tomoe, for some reason she took cover up in the trees. She wanted to check out what had disturbed her so much that, she climbed up a tree to see what was bothering her. Climbing up the tree was easy, the hard part was being mobile. She tried out a few things with the supplies in her bag, at first the hunting wire she had, which was very helpful. But when she saw the rope in one of her outer pockets, she remembered what she had used them for. At first it was difficult trying to remember how exactly she had done it before.

At the end of the ropes, for there were two were not grappling hooks as she had suspected, and was instead some similar contraption. It had three claws that was strangely areodynamic looking, and seemed able to move in a linear motion. It wasn't until she was in the air, testing out her half-memories and half-theory and realized that if she didn't stop that she was going to keep spinning around the branch until she tied herself up with it. Like some idiotic character from a book. At the last minute, her body or more likely her muscle memory pivotted her body in such a way that looked like she was flying crotch first into a tree ahead of her. To Tomoe's suprise and chargin the claws on the trees behind her suddenly loosened their grip, and she was left free falling from a gut wrenching height. She had to soften her fall by skidding off nearby branches, on the balls of her feet. The end result was that she landed safely on the forest floor, safe and sound but a little jarred from the situation. She didn't try that again anytime soon.

So she crept threw the forest on the ground. Until she came to a nice little enclove of bushes that would block her from view but wouldn't likewise impede her view of the road. Crouched, there she saw that the scene of the crime.

Tomoe saw that there was a caravan stopped in the middle of the road. Tomoe noted that they weren't stopping to rest, but that the trail was blocked. It seemed that a battle had taken place, there seemed to bodies from both bodies, both from the bandits and the defenders. The outlaws seemed to be winning from their sheer numbers. The only people left from the caravan seemed to be the women and children, huddled together in a circle, with the bandits surrounding them. Treatening. Should she help? It was obvious to Tomoe what was going to happen next.

Tomoe couldn't see the fear in their eyes from this far away, but she recognized it. The instinct that is born into everyone, the ability to recognize fear. Fear in others, fwar in themself. Man's predator was man himself. Babies could sense the emotions of the ones around them. The way the women's shoulder's shook with repressed fear, the way the children quivered and pressed down on themselves looking for protection. Tomoe contemplated, had she ever killed a human being? Tomoe wasn't sure, she was sure that she was no stranger to dearh. It was a natural part of the forest. But humans aren't even meant to contemplate the death of another, never mind by their own hand.

Tomoe watched on passively, she watched as one of the criminals roughly grabbed a woman's arm. She watched as the woman tried to resist and was smacked for it. But what Tomoe saw next was what shocked her the most, a throwing knife was sailing through the air and into the skull of the offender. Her body had apparently decided for her. Tomoe used her vantage point to take out the rest of the bandits. At first she had thought that it wouldn't have worked becauswe of the sheer diistance but it had. Tomoe vaguely notes the way her arm flexed, the way the small knife had arked in the air gave off a sense of familarity. As soon as all of the bandits were done, Tomoe stopped to see how she felt. It wasn't nothing exactly but it had somehow felt subdued. She numby noted that perhaps this was the first time she had killed other human beings. This feeling was different...looking down on the fallen bodies could not compare to hunting animals. She felt vulnerable. And she felt deep down in her heart that humanity was something beautiful but human nature was something grotesque.

She knew it then. This was the first time she killed. Tomoe ...didn't know what to think. She watched as the survivors of the caravan collected themsleves, bewildered that they were somehow saved, and they couldn't believe it. Tomoe watched them bring their dead onto their wagons and went on the theuir way.

But why does it feel like she not care? Why does it hurt to contemplate hurting others? But why does it hurt more to watch other contemplate hurting others?

She felt almost numb, she just wanted to stop thinking. To stop contemplating her feelings, analyzing her thoughts. She welcomed the achingly numb feeling that started to over take her mind, she just didn't want to care anymore. To think too hard, or too deeply. Tomoe broke. Her mind scattered its logical procces she had been keeping up.

* * *

AN: Tomoe had lieved in the woods for six years, and her parents before her lived their four years. They were a quacky creative bunch, a lot of the weapons that Tomoe owns are based on shinobi weapons but are designed for hunting and living in the very wild woods of The Land of Fire. The way she fights is also similar to Academy based Taijutsu, but are dramatically changed. She's quick and dangerous, someone who knows how to deal with cornerend and injured animals. She fights up close and personal although you don't see it here. Tomoe in this fight is afraid and detached, she doesn't want to hurt anyone. But can't stand to just watch, but she can't look away either so she decides to help without being up close and personal.


End file.
